This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise explicitly indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section. Abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined below at the end of the specification but prior to the claims.
Camera systems may have fixed or changeable optic lenses. In the case of changeable optical lenses, one possible technique for using changeable lenses and other accessories is that an accessory is not detected. This compromises tuning of the camera, as the camera is not optimized for the accessory. However, this is a low cost compromise.
For those systems where lens or other accessory identification is used, the lens identification is beneficial to optimize camera imaging processes. The most used method to identify a changeable optic lens or other accessory is through an electrical interface from the camera body to the lens unit. Using this electrical interface, the camera may read out an ID from an IC inside the accessory. This is a higher cost technique, as it requires the electrical interface and embedding of the IC inside the accessory.
Additionally, for portable devices such as mobile devices, there are limitations of metal usage due to possible disturbance to antenna systems. In these cases, only non-conductive materials may be used in detachable lenses and other accessories.
Furthermore, typically a surface of the accessory mates with a surface of the body of the device, generally through a bayonet mount. Even if one can determine what accessory is installed, for instance using an electrical interface, that determination is the extent of what can occur due to the fixed configuration of the surfaces of the accessory and the body.